The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-02-23

halt frightened. An hour later two or three
long, sloping hills begin to loom through the
breaking mist, and sudde:l!y. as if at the riS-
ing of curtain, the tim white houses of Ac-
era, and the ridge OF dark rcd sandstone upon
which they stand, and tie tall featl:ery palms
that rise above them against the sky line, and
the curving yellow beach below with its ring of
glittering foam, and the wide green uplands
beyond; Terminated by the rocky hcadlaEd
crowned with the low, massive white walls of
ChristiansbOrg castle, all start into view at
once.
OFF FOR TIE SHORE.
The innocent young men who come out here
for the first time with ideas of European
comfort and civilization, thinking they have
nothing to do but "go ashore at once" are
naturally somc. nat startled to find that the
first question is whether they can go ashore
at all. Old stagers talk so coolly of "heavy
beach" that it is rather shock to learn that
this simple phrase implies the breaking upon
the beach of so violent a surf to involve
the certainty of being capsiZed and the very
strong probability of being drowned. In the
offing lies a steamer which has already waited
here two days with passengers whom she can
not land even in a native surf boat, the only
craft which has any chance of living in such
a sea. However, the breakers a little less
formidable now, and a native bOatman's YER
dict of "naaf" CmiddIing) sufIices to encourage
us to venture. The acting governor of
Lagos, the Hon Frederick Evans for whom
a special surf boat has been sent out by the
the treasurer, kindly offers me a seat in it.
So we jump, rather tumble, into the
dancing boat, which bumps against our knees
one minute and is yards away beneath our
feet the next, and away we go to find out
whether we are to be drowned or not.
Up and down, up and down, with the spray
+I,a r1iT,cr
round our feet, now rising far into the air on
a hilltop of seeth1ng foam now plunging with
a dizzy swing into the depths of a shadowy
green valley between two towering walls of
dark water Every moment it seems as if
we must certainly be overwhelmed by some
huge "roller," which comes rushing on, curl
ing its vast, snowy crests far above our heads
like a falling avalanche. But the monster
always misses us by a hairs BREADTH for the q.
gaunt, black scarecrOws who sit perched
along our rocking gunwale, each with one
foot in a sort of stirrup OF rope fixed in the
boats side, have no match along the whole
Guinea coast for such work as this
sCOLDING THE FURIOUS WAVES.
Every stroke of the short, strong paddles
which, instead of being spear pointed like
those of the Grain coast, or spoon shaped like
those of the Niger, resemble a clumsy three
pronged fork, with very broad and thick
pOints-is accompanied by sharp yell, such
as Mr. Lowell humorously called "a dogs
ology," and sometimes even by few words
of untranSlatable abuse, hurled with angry
gestures at the furious waves. Meanwhile
scores of eager eyes watch our progress both
from the ship and from the shore, but, except
when suddenly flung up on the crest of huge
billOw, both we and our boat are completely
invisible from either point And now the
yelling grows louder and wilder as the strokes
of the paddles suddenly quicken, and the boat
rocks to and fro till it appears as if one inch
more must turn her right over, while, we
swOOp upward on the whirl of a mighty wave,
the shore and the great pillows that thunder
upon it, hitherto dim and distant, start all at
once into IoriiOus nearness.
We are now running parallel with the line
of crashing breakers along the beach, our
only chance being to skirt its terrible outer
edge til We can seize a favorable moment for
our final rush As the next wave lifts us upon
SIS crest we see swarm Of black figures hur-
rying down to the shore, ready to drag us to
land when our boat capsizes. Then comes an
ear-piercing howl from our crew, the boat is
whirIed onward Ike a stone from sling,
there comes tremendous shock, q GeafenIng
crash an indistinct vision of black faces and
outstretched arms amid a swirl of boiling
foam, and then 7 feel myself cl,.t. uea - EaI
q dozen hands ut once and borne laIdWSHd ID
d kind OF complicated free light au5ls SIX
CT seven bravery a8tives.-David Eer's West
Africa Letber IA New York Times
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